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I want to thank every DUer who has survived/endured sexual assault and discussed it here.

The DU conversation on rape, assault, rape culture and everything else that travels in this wretched applecart has been going on (in GD anyway) for a long while now. I, for one, have learned a lot, and have been required to look inward at a variety of things that I'd honestly never considered before. The conversation has gotten ugly more than once, but it is an ugly topic, and painful, and burdened with all the baggage that upbringing and culture and ignorance and anger brings along.

In particular, I am deeply grateful to the DUers who have survived/endured sexual assault, and have chosen to speak of their experience here. It takes a tremendous amount of personal courage and strength to bring up and speak out about such horrors, and that shared experience has given profound and important depth to the conversation. Of course I wish it had not happened, but it did, and by sharing it, you have made me and many others think very hard about a great many things, and I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart.